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December 2017 Native Advertising Trends in News Media Jesper Laursen
December 2017
Native Advertising Trends
in News Media
Jesper Laursen
Authors About the author 3
Jesper Laursen Foreword 4
Introduction 6
Case Studies: A. The importance of clear labeling 6
Alexander Højfeldt B. Revenue growth 7
Lund C. Greater strength and fewer challenges 7
Pelle Estborn Chapter 1: Integrating native advertising content 8
A. More publishers are adopting native advertising 8
Editors B. Publishers feeling positive about native advertising 9
Dawn McMullan C. Native advertising is growing in importance 9
L. Carol Christopher Chapter 2: The effect of native advertising on the bottom line 10
A. Anticipate very significant growth in share of revenue 10
Design & Layout B. Anticipate significant growth in share of revenue 11
Danna Emde C. Print is not declining 12
Chapter 3: Native advertising: Solutions and sources 14
Cover image: A. Publishers are pulling production closer 15
BILD Brand Studio/ B. Moving away from home 15
Rawpixel Case study: Content is journeying beyond CNN’s own
platforms 16
C. Combined selling is becoming more popular 20
D. Creatives participate in sales 21
E. Native is more expensive 22
Chapter 4: Measuring the effects of native advertising 23
A. Selling the effectiveness of native advertising 23
B. Engagement is important 24
Case study: Helsingborgs Dagblad publishes city
information as native advertising 24
C. Video is increasingly effective 29
D. Native is top-of-funnel 29
E. Native advertising adds value 30
Chapter 5: Native advertising: Opportunities and threats 31
A. Easier to tell real stories 31
© NAI and INMA 2017 Case study: How BILD brought online groceries to the
The contents contained Germans 32
within this report are the B. Long live video 37
exclusive domain of NAI C. Storytelling across platforms 38
and INMA and may not D. Fake news and ad blockers 38
be reproduced without E. Fewer customer complaints 39
the express written F. Publishers need to label native ads 40
consent. Conclusion 41
2
About
the author
Jesper Laursen is founder of the Native Advertising Institute and
has a degree in journalism from the Danish School of Journalism.
Laursen founded a journalistic production company called Media
Movers, content marketing and native advertising agency Brand
Movers, and the educational institution Clever Content — all of
which he is running today.
The Native Advertising Institute (NAI) is an international think
tank on a mission to help publishers, brands, and agencies
become successful with native advertising. NAI runs the world’s
largest two-day industry event, Native Advertising DAYS, which is
held every November in Berlin. NAI also conducts global research, publishes several reports on media
about native advertising, and organises the Native Advertising Awards.
About the International News Media Association (INMA)
The International News Media Association (INMA) is a global
community of market-leading news media companies reinventing
how they engage audiences and grow revenue in a multi-media environment. The INMA community
consists of nearly 8,000 members at 600+ news media companies in 60+ countries. Headquartered
in Dallas, INMA has offices in San Salvador, São Paulo, Antwerp, and New Delhi.
Native Advertising Trends in News Media was produced by the Native Advertising Institute and the
International News Media Association (INMA). The data for this report was collected July-September
2017 in an online survey e-mailed to a sample of news media executives amongst INMA members. 231
executives from 51 different countries completed the survey. The data was then analysed by the Native
Advertising Institute and INMA in collaboration, and the report was produced in December 2017.
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 3
Foreword
Native advertising is … tricky.
It works. It brings in revenue. When done well, audiences like it. And if audiences like
it, advertisers like it. And if advertisers like it, news media companies like it.
Still, in an industry built on black and white, native is a tad gray.
For the second year, INMA has partnered with the Native Advertising Institute,
based in Copenhagen, for a deep dive into what’s happening worldwide with native
advertising. Author Jesper Laursen and his team surveyed news media companies
around the world. The 231 responses paint a fascinating picture of what’s happening
right now.
This report is full of incredible information, pretty charts, and case studies from CNN,
Helsingborgs Dagblad, and BILD. Boiled down, here’s what we found:
l Unlike print advertising in general, which is in rapid decline for most publishers,
native advertising is holding steady.
l Fewer publishers are labeling native ads: 11% of those surveyed compared to
7% last year. Why? To meet budget demands.
l Video is the second most-effective type of native advertising (after online
articles).
l Native advertising is generating 18% of overall ad revenues, up from 11% last
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 4
year. Publishers expect that number to be 32% by 2020. One publisher brings
in 100% of ad revenue from native!
l Slightly more news media companies are offering native advertising as an
option, 51% this year compared to 48% last year.
l Last year, 35% of publishers surveyed described native advertising as “very
important” to their companies. This year, 50% did.
l Last year, 26% of publishers were working with an external agency to deliver
native advertising. This year, that number is half at 13%.
l 27% of news media companies surveyed have a dedicated native advertising
team, up a bit from last year’s 20%.
l Publishers charge more for native advertising (66% charge more than
traditional advertising), and for good reason: Research shows click-through
rates quadruple that of traditional advertising. And while last year 42% had a
challenge trying to determine pricing, this year only 29% do.
Native advertising’s journey is still unfolding. We hope this industry-wide snapshot
helps you plan how it might look at your news media company in 2018.
Enjoy!
Dawn McMullan
Senior Editor, INMA
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 5
Introduction
This is the second time INMA has partnered with the Native Advertising Institute in
Copenhagen to take a deep dive into what the global news media industry is doing in
the native advertising space. This year, 231 media executives from 51 countries share
their insights on this fast-growing — and revenue-producing — trend.
We found surprising and positive — as well as alarming — news to be found: Native
advertising continues to grow at a record-breaking pace all over the world, and it is
now becoming a vital and integrated part of the business model for more and more
publishers. More than half of all news media publishers now offer native advertising
solutions, and revenues are growing at a very high rate. The bad news? Fewer and
fewer publishers actually label native advertising.
Let’s dig in.
A. The importance of clear labeling
This year, 11% of the publishers said they do not label native ads at all, which is
considerably more than last year’s 7%, and even higher than the magazine industry
that, in a similar survey, has gone from 11% last year to 10% this year.
It’s good news that native advertising is becoming a more integrated and accepted
part of the publisher’s offerings. But it is bad news if it becomes so integrated into
the product that the audience cannot tell it from editorial content.
The reasons for this practise can vary, but the one we hear the most when talking
to publishers off the record is that they are so behind on budgets, they feel the
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 6
need to bend the rules. This is a serious problem — not only because it is illegal
and can completely ruin the credibility of news media, but because the audience
will eventually figure it out and then turn its back on native ads, just as it has on
traditional online advertising.
B. Revenue growth
We found a great deal of positive news in the numbers. First and foremost is the
continuing growth in revenue. Native advertising is now generating 18% of the
overall advertising revenues, up from 11% last year, and publishers are expecting that
number to be as high as 32% by 2020.
It is no surprise that the majority of publishers are now offering native advertising
solutions, with another big group considering following suit.
C. Greater strength and fewer challenges
Publishers also seem to be getting the hang of native advertising. They are
experiencing fewer challenges and are acting with more confidence — and moving
with greater strength, often into new areas and platforms. We’re seeing the native
ad studios of publishers acting as media agencies, event agencies, and even digital
agencies on occasion.
Some publishers are now openly talking about “going to war” with ad agencies and
media agencies, because, as they say, the alternative is that they will be left with a
low-margin business model, as happened with programmatic.
Of course, this new and more aggressive behaviour has been noticed by other
agencies, and it will be interesting to see what happens with the ecosystem going
forward. Our guess is that it will be much more flexible with agencies, publishers,
tech companies, and brands working in a wide range of constellations depending on
the project.
If you’re a publisher or agency, you may find the answers as to how you should
position your company in this report. n
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 7
CHAPTER 1
Integrating native
advertising
content
There is no doubt that as native advertising is becoming a more important part of the
revenue stream for publishers, more news media companies are integrating it into
their core business models.
It’s also without doubt that it is a somewhat controversial format. But as publishers
gain more experience — both on the commercial and the editorial sides of the
business — native advertising seems to be increasingly accepted and even popular.
A. More publishers are adopting native advertising
Many publishers are hesitant to offer native advertising as an advertising format, but
simultaneously, more are slowly opening up their media to this new tactic. This year,
51% are offering native advertising solutions compared to 48% last year. Comparably,
8% are “less likely” or “not likely” to offer native advertising, down from 13% in last
year’s report. So the pushback is also declining.
How likely are you to use native advertising as
an advertising or service option?
Not likely 2%
Less likely 6%
Likely 25%
Most likely 16%
We already do 51%
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 8
B. Publishers feeling positive toward native advertising
An overwhelming and growing majority of the publishers are positive toward native
advertising. Last year 76% proclaimed that they were positive, but this year that number
is even higher, at 82% with only 2% being negative — half as many as last year.
There can be different reasons for this. It may be the growing budgets, the low
number of complaints, or more positive experiences. But it is indisputable that the
resistance is as good as gone.
What are your feelings toward native advertising?
Positive 82%
Neutral 16%
Negative 2%
C. Native advertising is growing in importance
While native advertising is hardly driving actual subscriptions for publishers, it is
an ad format that the audience is actually accepting, and thus a format that drives
significant advertising sales. And this, in turn, makes it crucial for publishers.
This year 50% of the publishers say that native advertising is “very important” to their
company — up from just 35% last year. At the other end, 7% do not believe it to be
important, down from 11% last year. n
How important is native advertising to your company?
Not important 7%
Important 42%
Very important 50%
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 9
CHAPTER 2
The effect of native
advertising on the
bottom line
Declining revenue is leading many publishers to test new sources of revenue — such
as cars, travel, or new businesses — to solve their financial headaches. Some show
promise, but fade as quickly as they appeared. Others are more resilient.
Native advertising falls into the latter category and is now accounting for significantly
more of the overall advertising revenues than last year. The growing demand from the
brand side now means that many publishers are dreaming big when it comes to the
financial potential of native advertising.
This chapter explores projected growth in native advertising from 2016 to 2020.
A. Anticipate significant growth in share of revenue
Last year, publishers were expecting native advertising’s share of total ad revenues
to grow from 11% in 2015 to 25% in 2018. This year, we can see that it is much more
than mere hope on the part of the publishers, as native’s share of revenue has grown
63%, and is now at 18%. At the same time, publishers are, on average, expecting native
advertising to account for 32% of the total ad sales in 2020.
Average native advertising share of total ad
revenues from 2016 to 2020
2016 18%
2020 32%
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 10In comparison, the Native Advertising Institute and the trade organisation FIPP earlier
this year released the second-annual survey on native advertising in the magazine
industry. Magazines seem to experience a lesser growth than the newspaper media,
getting 21% of their advertising revenue from native in 2016, up from 19% in 2015.
They are, however, expecting native advertising to account for 40% by 2020.
Diving a little deeper, the majority of the news media publishers in our report are
getting 10% of their ad revenue from native. Some news media are, however, already
getting 50% to 70%, and one of the participating publishers is getting 100%.
Compared to last year’s survey, there are compelling findings. In 2015, 30% of the
publishers were getting 0% of their advertising revenue from native advertising. But
in 2016 that number dropped to 18%. Concurrently, 8% got half or more of their
advertising revenue from native in 2016, up from only 4% in 2015.
B. Anticipate significant growth in share of revenue
Expected native advertising share of total ad
revenues from 2016 to 2020
48%
2016
25% 2020
22%
18%
14% 14%
12% 12%
11%
3% 3%
3%
1% 2% 1%2% 2% 2% 1% 1% 1% 1%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 11C. Print is not declining
Whereas print advertising in general is in rapid decline for most publishers, native
advertising is a different story. In 2015, print on average accounted for 38% of the total
revenues coming from native advertising. In 2016, that percentage was the same.
It was more or less what the publishers expected. And it could have something to
do with the fact that native advertising is very often used as a top-of-funnel activity
driving, for example, brand awareness. If the emphasis was more on relatively hard
core, sales-related activities, digital would most likely be a growing part of the pie.
If we look to the magazine publishers again, they have experienced a steep decline
in print’s share of native advertising income. In 2015, print was as high as 42% of the
total native advertising spend, whereas in 2016, the number was down to 32%. It will
be interesting to see if the news media industry will follow the magazine publishers or
if print will remain strong. n
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 12GET THE PUBLISHER’S BUYERS GUIDE TO NATIVE ADVERTISING TECHNOLOGY Download Your Copy Here
CHAPTER 3
Native advertising:
Solutions and
sources
Native advertising represents a new and rapidly growing source of revenue for
publishers around the world — not merely as a replacement for a declining traditional
ad spend, but rather as a brand new revenue driver through agency services.
In the early days, publishers were simply making advertising space available for what
were most often very product-focused advertorials. But as native advertising has
evolved into more audience-focused and editorial-like products, publishers find
themselves playing an increasingly active role, sometimes even that of the lead agency
in a campaign.
Jimmy Maymann, former CEO of Huffington Post, once claimed that though he was
happy with the performance of the company’s in-house studio, he would much rather
do without it. The only reason for having it was that no one else seemed able to deliver
the kind and quality of content needed to gain traction on Huffington Post.
Many publishers seem to be experiencing the same phenomenon, and thus more and
more are making the actual production of native-ad campaigns a core service — if not
to make money on the actual creative work, then for fear of missing out on native ad
campaigns that cannot run without quality content.
Some publishers are struggling to make a solid profit out of the agency business. And it is
probably not a business for every publisher to be in. But before giving up, it is important
to realise that it takes time to excel in any new business. It takes time to learn the skill
set, competencies, and general modus operandi of an agency. If an agency wanted to
become a publisher, it is fairly safe to say that that, too, would take a while to master.
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 14A. Publishers are pulling production closer
When we conducted the survey last year, 26% of publishers were working with an
external agency partner to deliver native advertising. This year, however, that number is
exactly half, with 13%.
On the other hand, 35% of the publishers have established an in-house studio, up from
33% last year, and 47% of the publishers will let advertisers use their editorial staffs to
produce native advertising — up from 42% last year. Now, while the latter opens up
many interesting discussions about the division of church and state, it also shows that
publishers are pulling production of the creative solutions closer. And that they are
betting harder on these services.
How do you provide native advertising solutions?
Own native ad studio 35%
Separate native ad team 28%
External agency partner 13%
Advertiser’s agencies 18%
Editorial team 47%
Other 10%
To Ana Plisic, editorial director at Croatian publisher Hanza Media’s Native Ad Studio,
this is a very natural development: “Content is king, and who is the king in creating
content? The editorial team.”
B. Moving away from home
Publishers are still providing their clients with classic products and offerings — such
as written content (84%), video (65%), layout (50%), and infographics (48%) — very
closely related to their core business. Many, however, are also starting to offer services
that would normally fall less naturally to them, such as media buying on social media
platforms other than their own (35%), as well as on traditional media platforms other
than their own, and even content solutions on client’s own platforms (29%).
“I think all publishers are looking at how they use their capability around data and
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 15audience understanding and how they can extend their client’s content off-platform,”
says James Hunt, vice president at CNN International’s content studio, Create Group.
“That is also a big focus for us and something we are starting to do more and more.”
CASE STUDY
Content is journeying beyond CNN’s own platforms
By Alexander Højfeldt Lund, editor, Native Advertising Institute
CNN International Commercial’s branded content studio, Create Group, has
grown from its debut as an internal studio for high-end television commercials to
a global content studio spanning multiple platforms.
But native advertising wasn’t an important part of the studio’s strategy in the
beginning: ”We were conceived to make traditional TV commercials for clients
who didn’t have access to that kind of service themselves,” says James Hunt, vice
president, Create Group.
The studio’s first venture into the world of native advertising, CNN International
Commercial (CNNIC) was around 10 years ago. Since then, native advertising and
branded content have become vital to Create, just as they have to the rest of the
publishing world.
”Branded content and native advertising has exploded in the last couple of years.
It is an upward trend that other publishers are also experiencing,” Hunt says.
In fact, as of 2016, 54% of all advertising revenue at CNN International came from
deals that incorporated branded content made by Create: ”We are very much
intertwined in the fabric of the business,” he says.
Story is at the heart of it
Create is responsible for the development, production, and delivery of all branded
content for CNN International Commercial clients: on-air, online, and social
media.
”Ultimately, our focus is on storytelling,” Hunt says. “We understand our clients.
We understand our audience and we understand what resonates with our
audience. We are fortunate enough to have a client base that we have been
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 16CASE STUDY (continued)
working with for a long time, and for us it is about extending the brand’s story in
interesting and engaging ways. And story is at the heart of it.”
Create has around 35 permanent staff, which includes directors, producers,
editors, designers, filmmakers, etc. But Hunt underscores that the most important
competency to have is credibility: ”We have a network of writers and copywriters
that we draw on who are specialists in their field[s].”
Client industries include travel, tech, finance, luxury goods, and infrastructure, as
well as multi-national companies and governmental organisations.
”Because of the global nature of our business, you really need the local inside
knowledge to make content relevant to the audience consuming it,” Hunt says.
“So we supplement the core staff with very credible creators from around the
world. We work with them on a regular basis and they are really tapped into how
the brand is perceived in that particular market.”
Although Create Group has around 35 permanent staff, including directors, editors, producers,
designers and filmmakers, the agency’s most important competency is credibility.
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 17CASE STUDY (continued)
On other platforms
The creative agency does everything from video and written content that sits
across CNN’s own channels, to off-site content like 360-degree videos for
Facebook and Snapchat. And Create is focused on producing content for the
clients that is applicable off CNN’s own platforms, as well.
”I think all publishers are looking at how they use their capability around data
and audience understanding and how they can extend their clients’ content off-
platform,” Hunt says. “That is also a big focus for us and something we are starting
to do more and more.”
In early 2016, CNNIC established a partnership with Sharethrough, software that
helps publishers manage their native content over many different platforms.
Sharethrough created a product for CNN International Commercial that allows it
to manage its native content over all the CNN-owned platforms.
When presented with the idea that such a collaboration in the future could lead to
Create publishing content on news media sites other than its own, Hunt explains
that that is already beginning to happening.
”What we are trying to do is move to a model where we are a full, end-to-end
marketing solution for our clients,” Hunt says. “At the moment, our focus is on
our CNN clients, who are advertising on CNN International Network and CNN-
operated platforms. But there is great potential within the next two to three years
to really begin pushing the client’s content across all kinds of different media.
”At the same time, it is important to walk before you run. But as tech improves, I
think we will see publishers talking to clients more broadly about how they can
service them above and beyond their own platforms.”
More brands are turning to publishers — not only when looking for agency
partners, but also when they need help on platforms other than the publisher’s
own. And that is also true also for Create.
”We like to consider ourselves now as a proper strategic partner,” Hunt says. “We
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 18CASE STUDY (continued)
no longer talk about spots and banner[s]. That can still be important, but the
lion’s share of the conversations we are having with our clients are about solving
tangible business challenges and delivering solid marketing results.”
Clear separation
Even though Create works with global businesses, writers, and copywriters from
all over the world, the agency still strongly believes it is important to have people
who understand the CNN audience and the CNN voice. However, there is no
crossover between editorial staff and the team delivering branded content.
”There is a clear separation between my team, responsible for delivering branded
content, and the editorial side,” Hunt says. “But when it comes to the audience
experience and providing a proper experience, you need to make sure that you
have a dialogue between the commercial and the editorial side[s] of the business
[so] that what you are proposing makes sense.”
Data informs creativity
Over the last 10 years, the rapidly changing media landscape has demanded that
Create change very quickly as well. Although the studio began as an internal
studio for television commercials, it had to rapidly change its offerings to match
“Branded content and
native advertising has
exploded in the last
couple of years. It is
an upward trend that
other publishers are also
experiencing.”
James Hunt
Create Group
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 19CASE STUDY (continued)
the fact that news and media are consumed in hundreds of new ways compared
to a mere five years ago.
”At the same time, we have to be flexible between the two extremes,” Hunt says.
“We still make TV commercials, but … we must work to extend those campaigns
across mobile and social. It is a great creative challenge.”
Concurrently, there has been a huge development regarding the use of data that
has given agencies the ability to get under the skin of the audience, Hunt explains:
“The data is really used to inform creativity. We have a number of proprietary tools
that allow us to pull trends or topics relevant to the client’s audience and that help
the creative process at the front end.”
But the largest change that the studio has experienced is the increase in volume,
according to Hunt: “Not many years ago only 6% to 10% of the revenue ran
through the studio. Now it’s 60%.”
C. Combined selling is becoming more popular
Though many publishers are trying to create native advertising that will help at the very
bottom of the sales funnel, most native advertising is still primarily used for top-of-
funnel content. Display, on the other hand, is better the other way around, which is why
the two work so beautifully hand in hand.
Maybe that is what publishers are experiencing as well, since 65% of them are selling
native in combination with traditional advertising, up from 54% last year. It could also
be a sign that publishers are getting better at selling integrated, and more strategic
campaigns.
How do you sell your native advertising solutions?
In combination with
traditional advertising 65%
As a separate product 35%
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 20“If you focus on hiring
individuals who have
creative business sense,
and are focused on
building relationships, it
can be done. It’s beneficial
to your business, and great
for the client.” Melissa Rosenthal
Cheddar Inc.
Finally, we are seeing native advertising moving from a new thing that advertisers
and media agencies are trying out for the first time, to a more accepted part of the
campaign mix.
D. Creatives participate in sales
News media publishers seem to be ramping up on their dedicated native advertising
sales teams. Of those who responded to our questions, 27% have a dedicated team, up
from only 20% last year.
There are many variations across the board, but there seems to be a tendency for
people with an editorial background to get involved in the process. In an interview with
the Native Advertising Institute, Gary Quinn, editor at The Irish Times Content Studio,
put it this way:
“Journalists have a different approach to storytelling than sales people. Particularly
for winning customers, we see it as an advantage because the brands prefer that
representatives of the editorial staff [are] involved.”
And Melissa Rosenthal, executive vice president at Cheddar Inc., takes it one step
further, purveying the thought of creatives being the actual sales people.
“Why can’t your sellers be your creatives and account managers? Are these skill sets
not interchangeable? It’s time to break the mould and try something new. If you focus
on hiring individuals who have creative business sense, and are focused on building
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 21relationships, it can be done. It’s beneficial to your business, and great for the client.”
Whatever the background, there seems to be a shift toward more specialised teams in
the sales departments.
E. Native is more expensive
Whoever is doing the actual selling, they are, in general, charging more for the native
advertising solutions than traditional advertising: 65% are charging a higher price, while
18% are charging less, and 16% the same as traditional advertising.
In comparison, only 56% of the magazine publishers were able to charge more for
native advertising, and 12% charged less, according to a similar study that the Native
Advertising Institute did with FIPP in the magazine industry. n
How do you price native advertising vs. traditional
advertising?
Higher 65%
Lower 16%
The same 18%
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 22CHAPTER 4
Measuring the
effects of native
advertising
One of the biggest challenges for the native advertising industry today is to prove
the effectiveness of the format. There is no doubt that publishers and agencies are
on a steep learning curve, and we’re seeing more and more wonderful work. This is,
however, not sufficient and the industry needs to get better at measuring the results
of the native advertising campaigns.
A. Selling the effectiveness of native advertising
It is, for obvious reasons, fairly unthinkable that publishers selling native advertising
would ever say to an advertiser that it is ineffective. The same goes for this report, as
79% of those surveyed consider native advertising either effective or very effective.
How effective would you consider your
native advertising solutions to be?
Very effective 25%
Effective 54%
Neither effective
16%
nor ineffective
Ineffective 3%
Very ineffective 3%
There are quite a few statistics to back up this premise. One of the most popular is the
click-through rate, which in numerous studies has been shown to reach four times
that of display ads.
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 23B. Engagement is important
In last year’s survey, the most popular key performance indicator (KPI) for measuring
native advertising success, was traffic — with 60% of publishers weighing in here. With
58% this year, it is still a very popular metric, but the audience engagement is now in
the lead with 69%, up from 58% last year.
In Sweden, Helsingborgs Dagblad (HD) is experiencing audience engagement as
popular amongst clients — especially one of the biggest and most consistent native
advertising clients, the city of Helsingborg. Says Fredrika Haglund, Brand Studio
manager, at HD: “There are daily goals set for pageviews, the number of visitors
from local IP-addresses, and pageviews per visit, and of course we measure much
more. However, one of the city’s most important measures for success is qualitative
engagement from citizens, people contacting them directly, thanking for their
information and asking for more — that has never happened before.”
CASE STUDY
Helsingborgs Dagblad publishes city information
as native advertising
By Pelle Estborn, content marketing editor at Helsingborgs Dagblad’s and
Sydsvenskan’s Brand Studio, now a part of Bonnier News Brand Studio
For more than a year, the city council of Helsingborg in Sweden has published
community information as native advertising with Helsingborgs Dagblad (HD), the
leading newspaper of the region — and also the main investigator of the council’s
work and spending of taxpayer’s money.
One of the city council office’s most important tasks is informing citizens of what
it does: “The information we provide should be available where the citizens are,”
says Mattias Hennius, former head of press relations for the city.
HD’s news site and app, hd.se, is the largest news platform in the area and the
place most citizens go for information and news. It’s also the most diligent
investigator of the city and its administration.
“We are the digital news hub in the region,” says Jonas Kanje, editor in chief, HD.
“The core content is news, but you can also find job listings, traffic information,
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 24CASE STUDY (continued)
lunch menus from the restaurants, and nowadays also information from the city
council.”
Editorial independence
The biggest concern in forging a native partnership between the city and the local
newspaper was editorial independence — not only for the newspaper’s staff, but
more importantly, in the eyes of Helsingborg’s citizens.
Many parts of the company’s organisation are involved in making this relationship
work:
l The Brand Studio team helps customers’ production and evolution of the ads.
l The editor-in-chief reads every ad before it’s published — and can stop its
publication if need be. Since the editorial team and the native advertising team
cannot know the other team’s plans, the editor-in-chief has sole responsibility
for this. In case of a conflict, it is the advertisement, not editorial content, that
gets the knife.
Helsingborg’s native advertisement in ”Hallå!”, the free printed newspaper distributed to homes
in Helsingborg.
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 25CASE STUDY (continued)
l The tech team develops custom publishing solutions,
l The analysts’s work enables the city to follow ad performance in real-time.
l And on the city’s side, its content staff had to make sure all departments were
on board and willing to help with the project.
“This kind of cooperation between a city council and a news outlet is yet today
unheard of in Sweden, where they cooperate but are still 100% independent from
each other,” says Fredrika Haglund, Brand Studio manager.
The city publishes two ads every week at hd.se. The content type varies with the
ad’s objective. It can be a 1,200-word personal story, practical information on
construction work in the area, or a tongue-in-cheek video on snow clearing.
Most of the content is, in some form, repurposed on social platforms. Some of
it is also published in a free printed paper from HD, delivered to all homes in the
area. The campaign is ongoing, except for six weeks over summer.
A long-term partnership
The key to the campaign’s success is its longevity — it began in September 2016.
Before the native partnership resulted in any published ads, HD held workshops with the city of
Helsingborg on subjects such as the news outlet’s voice and editorial principles.
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 26CASE STUDY (continued)
“The long-term commitment creates possibilities to work in new ways, [and]
through that reach the specific goals with lesser effort,” says Pelle Estborn,
content marketing editor at Brand Studio.
Before the launch, Helsingborg reorganised its communication department and
assigned three to four staff members to work with this campaign.
“We had workshops with their staff on how the ads were to be produced in order
to add the most user value.”
The visual appearance
Since this is not a commercial native campaign, this campaign has a slightly different
appearance — these ads are coloured green instead of yellow as other native ads
are. The content is called community information, instead of advertisement.
“The ads are a natural part of the content of the site, but they are clearly marked
as content from the city council,” Kanje says.
For community information to “earn” the special labeling that sets it apart from
commercial advertising, certain criteria must be met.
“We demand that the content must be of interest to the community and not push
sales,” Kanje says. “Public sector advertisers have to participate in a workshop to
understand the media channel and the editorial independence. And they may
never use the channel as a platform to give response to investigations made by
the newspaper or to express party politics.”
To make sure every ad meets the standards of hd.se, the editors at Brand Studio
read and discuss the ads with the city.
“It has proven to be well-invested time for both them and us. It has led to better
timing, choice of stories, text structure, images, etc. It’s often subtle changes in
the storytelling techniques,” says Brand’s Estborn. “Today, we spend less time
editing their ads than we spend on the material we get from professional content
agencies, because they do not know our sites like the city of Helsingborg [does].”
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 27CASE STUDY (continued)
Different KPIs than for traditional business campaigns
Since the city is different than a business with profit goals, KPIs are different than
regular campaigns. The main goal of the campaign is for as many citizens as
possible to gain a better understanding of what the city council is doing with tax
money. But the city also hopes to boost citizen interest in the community and its
possibilities.
For the city’s central information team, the native partnership has also meant that
the different departments’ information desks are connected more closely and
working for a common goal. This new method of content creation has, in fact,
affected the whole council’s way of communicating with citizens. Today the council
reaches citizens — every day, all year (except for the six-week summer break).
“The aim for us as a municipal[ity] is to be more open and let our citizens know
what we can provide for them, this by using storytelling in different forms:
text, picture, film,” says Cecilia Lundgren, head of editorial for Helsingborg.
“The editorial team works strategically, and we provide our content not only to
Helsingborgs Dagblad but also to our own channels and social media. We need
to be where our citizens are receiving information — that is why we focus on this
native partnership.”
The city of Helsingborg uses a native advertising campaign designed together with
Helsingborgs Dagblad to provide news as well as job listings, traffic information, lunch
menus, and information on city council activities.
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 28CASE STUDY (continued)
Results
In numbers, the partnership is one of the most successful native campaigns that
have been published on hd.se.
l Up to 10,000 visitors per ad, with an average of 2,500.
l Up to 3:15 minutes in average reading time for an ad, with a total average
of 1:30.
l Up to 5.1% click-through rate on an ad, with an average of 2%.
In total, the city has published over 100 ads online, and more than 30 in print.
C. Video is increasingly effective
It is no secret that video is all the rage these days. According to Cisco Visual
Networking Index, 82% of all consumer Internet traffic will be video by 2020.
And according to the participating news media publishers in this report, video is
increasingly becoming the most effective type of native advertising.
Last year the most effective type, according to the respondents, was online articles
with 77%. That percentage is down to 69% just as printed articles have dropped from
63% to 50%. Video, on the other hand, is growing from 54% to 61%, and publishers
see it as the second most effective type of native advertising.
Another interesting jump comes from promoted posts in Instagram, which went from
8% last year to 15% this year.
D. Native is top-of-funnel
As previously stated, native advertising is not so much seen as a bottom-of-funnel
tool by publishers. Only 32% create content for this part of the buyer’s journey,
whereas 71% use it for top-of-funnel activities and 66% for the middle of the buyer’s
journey.
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 29Which stage of the buyer’s journey are you
creating native advertising for?
Top-of-funnel
(Awareness) 71%
Mid-funnel 66%
(Consideration)
Bottom-of-funnel 32%
(Decision)
Other 3%
This question was not included in last year’s survey and, thus, we do not have any
clear vision of how this is going. But there are many publishers — The New York
Times being one of them — that are working systematically to create bottom-
of-funnel content, as many advertisers for good reason have a strong focus on
commercial outcome. It will be interesting to see if this statistic will change next year.
E. Native advertising adds value
Many advertisers and media agencies have tried to convince publishers that they
should, in fact, be allowed to publish native advertising for free on the publisher’s
platform. They argue it is, after all, valuable and relevant content, and that it will add
value for the audience.
So far publishers have been declining that generous offer from the brand side, and
probably will continue to do so for financial reasons. As for the actual value of the
commercial content to the audience, a very high and growing number of publishers
do in fact believe that it does add value. This year, 84% of the respondents think native
advertising adds value for their audience, up from 77% last year. Only 3% have the
opposite opinion. n
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 30CHAPTER 5
Native advertising:
Opportunities and
threats
Done right, native advertising can be one of the biggest opportunities for publishers.
Budgets are pouring into the industry, and advertisers seem very much in love with
the format. If this enthusiasm is to transform into solid ongoing business in the long
run, there are a great many problems and challenges that need to be dealt with.
A. Easier to tell real stories
It seems that publishers are experiencing fewer challenges in terms of native
advertising. Last year the biggest challenge was explaining the discipline to
advertisers, with 46% of publishers running into this issue. That percentage has
dropped to 29% this year. Pricing native advertising was also a big problem last year,
as 42% had that challenge, whereas this year only 29% are facing this challenge.
One challenge still on the radar is convincing advertisers to tell real stories, although
What is your biggest challenge regarding native advertising?
Explaining native Proving the effectiveness
advertising to advertisers
29% of native advertising 24%
Convincing advertisers to Getting media agencies
buy native advertising
29% involved in native ad projects 25%
Convincing advertisers Getting management
to tell real stories
36% buy-in 7%
Pricing native Training sales
advertising
29% team 36%
Creating effective Organising the native
strategies
25% advertising team 10%
Producing engaging
native advertising content
22% Other 12%
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 31that, too, has seen a decline from 44% to 36%. Robert Heesen, head of BILD Brand
Studio Consulting, is seeing that development and mentions their campaign,
Allyouneedfresh for Deutsche Post DHL, which won a gold medal at the Native
Advertising Awards in 2017.
CASE STUDY
How BILD brought online groceries to the Germans
By Alexander Højfeldt Lund, editor, Native Advertising Institute
When Germany’s leading online supermarket, Allyouneedfresh, contacted BILD
Brand Studio, it had three goals:
1. To increase the awareness of online supermarkets.
2. To build trust among Germans toward shopping for groceries online.
3. To show the advantages of buying milk, beef, and cucumbers on the Internet.
“They were searching for a way to inform people of the advantages of online
grocery stores,” says Robert Heesen, head of consulting, BILD Brand Studio.
“Compared to other countries, German online supermarkets were lagging behind,
mainly due to prejudices such as [beliefs] that the groceries are not fresh enough,
they are not being delivered on time, and so on. In 2016, online supermarkets in
Germany only saw a 1.2% share of the overall German food retail market. That is a
comparatively small market share. In Great Britain and France already, 5% of food
sales were generated online in the same timespan.”
When Allyouneedfresh (owned by Deutsche Post DHL) approached BILD Brand
Studio in October 2016, the store was pretty sure it could not change people’s
minds through traditional brand advertising.
“From the beginning they said: ‘We need to build a story around it and make it
informing and entertaining,’ explains Heesen. “They were searching for stories and
were all in on native advertising.”
The online grocery was aware that to scale its business, it could do traditional
brand advertising, but only at the moment when customers had thrown their
scepticism overboard.
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 32CASE STUDY (continued)
“Through native advertising, they could broaden the market by making the
concept of shopping for groceries online more familiar to people,” he says.
Four people at BILD Brand Studio were tasked with educating people, building trust,
and providing information about the advantages of shopping for groceries online.
Individually tailored stories
Among the challenges for an online supermarket in Germany are the high density
of brick-and-mortar markets as well as German consumers’ persistent scepticism
about ordering perishable food online. In particular, German customers do not
trust in the warehousing and delivery cycles of online supermarkets.
In the move toward removing these prejudices, BILD Brand Studio chose to focus
on three target groups for the campaign:
l Those who run family households.
l Young women with an interest in lifestyle and physical fitness.
l Young men with an interest in technology and innovation.
“The main driver in
converting brand users
into new customers was the
re-targeting campaigns,
where readers of the
brand story would see a
traditional banner ad, but
always with a hook
Robert Heesen to the story.”
BILD Brand Studio
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 33CASE STUDY (continued)
“Allyouneedfresh had those target groups. Their typical customer is either a young
mother or a tech-savvy urban man,” Heesen says.
For each of the three target groups, BILD Brand Studio translated the client’s goals
into unique stories, developing an integrated campaign that was built on three of
BILD’s most succesful platforms — BILD, Stylebook, and Techbook.
l On BILD.de, independent experts put the spotlight on seven myths regarding
online grocery shopping.
l On stylebook.de, Germany’s Instagram queen, Pamela Reif, revealed her
fitness and food secrets.
l On techbook.de, experts presented trends of online grocery shopping in
Germany.
“The three stories were … individually tailored for the three individual platforms
because we have different target groups on the different platforms,” Heesen says.
“But the focus was always on the added value: ‘How can I be as fit as Pamela
Reif?’ for example.
“The multi-platform approach meant a lot more complexity because we had to
write completely different stories. We had to find a trigger to get people into the
story on the different platforms and on social media — which is 90% Facebook.
We had to create headlines that also worked for social media. And we had to
figure out how to define a story that was both interesting to the audience on the
platform and also had relevance for the Alleyouneedfresh target groups.”
Branding in a more subtle way
To drive sales, BILD Brand Studio developed re-targeting campaigns on BILD.de
and stylebook.de. Each re-targeting campaign consisted of individually designed
display ads that were promoted to brand story readers. Each ad referred to the
content of the respective story.
“The main driver in converting brand users into new customers was the
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 34CASE STUDY (continued)
re-targeting campaigns, where readers of the brand story would see a traditional
banner ad, but always with a hook to the story,” Heesen says.
During the campaign, BILD Brand Studio increased the brand awareness of
Allyouneedfresh by 45% and managed to get a 100% higher conversion-rate of
Web site visitors, who came to Allyouneedfresh.de after reading a brand story
(compared to users from AdWords and standard display campaigns).
“The increase in brand awareness was actually relatively easy because the brand
was not really that well known,” Heesen explains. ”But, of course, the users have
to understand that it is a branded article and which brand was actually sponsoring
the article. We did that in a more subtle way and presented Allyouneedfresh more
as a partner in providing added value for the reader.”
BILD Brand Studio increased
the brand awareness of
Allyouneedfresh by telling
different stories to its three
different target customers.
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 35CASE STUDY (continued)
Three key takeaways from the BILD campaign:
1. Always have a look at the added value that you are supposed to bring to the
target audience and tailor the stories to match the different platforms. The
same article on three different platforms would not have had the same effect.
2. All the know-how publishers have from their editorial work should be used to
drive traffic to the brand stories. BILD Brand Studio used teasers that looked
like editorial teasers, which, of course, are labeled as advertising and have top
positions on the home page.
3. Social media should play a major role in all campaigns. Many companies do
not use Facebook wisely in the branded content setting.
Results
The campaign ran from November 1-28, 2016, on BILD.de and techbook.de.
On stylebook.de, the campaign ended around Christmas the same year. The
campaign resulted in 240,000 article views overall, and an average dwell time of
1:42 minutes.
The accompanying market research showed the following increases:
l 45% increase in brand awareness.
l 38% increased willingness to buy groceries at Allyouneedfresh.de.
l 48% increased willingness to buy perishable food online.
l 48% increase in consumers that would consider a specific purchase at
Allyouneedfresh post-campaign.
Allyouneedfresh’s own Web site analysis during the campaign period showed:
l 100% higher conversion rate of Web site visitors who came to Allyouneedfresh.
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 36CASE STUDY (continued)
de after reading a brand story (compared to users from the the company’s
AdWords/standard display campaigns).
l 25% higher average shopping basket by brand-story users compared to users
from the AdWords/standard display campaigns.
l 23% higher re-purchase rate by brand-story users compared to users from the
AdWords/standard display campaigns
And finally, today, BILD Brand Studio employs 12 people — twice as many as last
year.
B. Long live video
When it comes to opportunities, the native advertising landscape has changed
dramatically. Last year, there was nothing even close to written content, with 90%
seeing that as a big opportunity. This year, however, that number is down to 73%. And
we find an even steeper decline in layout, which drops from 54% to a mere 15%.
These two shifts make perfect sense when we look at video. This year, 64% see video
What are the biggest native advertising opportunities for
your company?
Written content 73% Media buying on traditional media
Video content 64% platforms other than your own 15%
Multi-media storytelling 45% Paid e-mail distribution 15%
Multi-platform storytelling 44% Paid influencer distribution 12%
Audience data 35% Paid search for content 12%
Strategy 33% Artificial Intelligence 11%
Events and experience 28% Online media (Advertising funded
Research 24% programs) 10%
Media buying on social media platforms Virtual Reality 9%
other than your own 21% Augmented Reality 7%
Content solutions on client’s platforms 20% Broadcast (Advertising funded programs) 5%
Infographics 18% Other 1%
Layout 15%
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 37content as a big opportunity, up from 53% last year. It aligns very well with the overall
development of video described earlier in the report, and there seems to be a clear
shift away from the written word and toward more visual content.
C. Storytelling across platforms
For years, publishers have been experimenting with telling their stories on a wide
range of platforms in ways that suit the particular platform. Now, the expertise
gained from this work seems to be serving them well in delivering native-advertising
solutions.
What are you greatest strengths when it comes to native
advertising?
Multi-platform Documented native
storytelling
54% advertisng results 24%
Single-platform A specialised staff for
storytelling
18% producing native advertising 40%
Existing brands and A native advertising
audience relationships
62% studio 19%
General editorial Audience
expertise
58% data 29%
Knowledge about audience Other
preferences and behaviours
47% 1%
Whereas general editorial expertise was seen as the primary strength last year, that
is down to 58% this year. Multi-platform storytelling capabilities, on the other hand,
moved from 38% to 54%.
D. Fake news and ad blockers
For this year’s report, we have added a few more options in terms of the potential
threats to native advertising. Poor client understanding is still No. 1, though this year
with 44%, down from 55% last year.
At No. 2, we’re seeing a newcomer, namely that native advertising risks being
associated with fake news, which 37% of the publishers see as a threat to native
advertising. And that threat is very real. Though it remains to be uncovered
completely, there seem to be strong indications that Russian organisations were
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 38in some way involved in fake news activities aimed at influencing the American
presidential election. It is beyond doubt that fake and damaging news was indeed
spread using different forms of native advertising, especially on Facebook.
Ad-blocking is also seen as a threat by the same 17% as last year. Interestingly, Dr.
Laura Sophie Dornheim, head of communications at Eyeo, the company behind
Adblock Plus, stated at the conference Native Advertising DAYS in Berlin, that native
advertising and ad blockers are essentially after the same thing: enhancing the online
experience of the users. This is also why, in general, Adblock Plus actually sees native
advertising as “acceptable ads” that are allowed through the company’s filter.
What do you consider the biggest threat to native advertising?
Poor Lack of sufficient buy-in from
labeling
25% organisation/top management 8%
Ad Limited budgets
blocking
17% from clients 27%
Poor client Too time-
understanding
44% consuming 18%
Lack of separation editorial and Lack of control over
commercial side of business
25% the content 18%
Native advertising risks being Lack of knowledge/
associated with “fake news”
37% skills in our company 20%
Lack of engagement from Other
readers/viewers
23% 6%
Lack of proof
of effectiveness
27%
E. Fewer customer complaints
Native advertising is, without doubt, a radically new form of advertising, pushing the
traditional boundaries between the editorial and commercial sides of the business.
This leads to discontent among some groups of audiences, and consequently to
customer complaints. Last year, 20% of publishers surveyed had complaints related to
native advertising. This year the number is down to 15%.
There may be several reasons for this, but it is probably fair to assume that the
audience is getting increasingly accustomed to the format, and that publishers are
learning how to walk the fine line between catering to the commercial needs of the
advertisers and the need of their audience for reliable, trustworthy journalism.
| NATIVE ADVERTISING TRENDS IN NEWS MEDIA 39You can also read
